Sea World accused of negligence on Dawn Brancheau’s death
Sea World did not manage to save its employees from killer whale Tilikum although the officials told trainers that anyone who got into a pool with him was not likely to come out alive.
Linda Simons, a former Sea World employee was fired from her job just when the investigation on trainer Dawn Brancheau’s death started. She says that the safety practices at the Florida park are not safe at all and that there might be happening another tragedy any moment. Simons says that she wants to speak out because she is trying to make sure that the remaining team members are safe and says that if they are put anywhere near the whales they will be in great danger and a tragedy could easily happen again. Simons’ allegations come at a time when the results of an investigation on trainer Brancheau’s death are going to be released by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Maurice Arcadier, Simons’ lawyer, says that she was discouraged on giving information she wanted to OSHA to help with the investigation.
Brancheau died on the 24th of February during a performance. Her death was caught on tape by a tourist: while he was feeding Tilikum, who had previously killed two more people, Brancheau was suddenly pulled under the water by her ponytail and shaken with violence. Sea World did not allow trainers to enter the water together with the whale because of her history, but Brancheau was lying a few moments before her death on a shallow platform which was a few inches under water. Simons said that everyone who wanted to work at Sea World was told about the killer whale that had killed a Canadian trainer in 1991 and a man who entered without permission into his holding area in 1999. Sea World accused Simons of threatening to make negative publicity in order to receive payment from SeaWorld to shut up. Sea World released a statement saying that Simons worked there only for a couple of weeks and that she was fired for reasons regarding poor performance during the OSHA inspection of Dawn Brancheau‘s death. They also declared that she failed to meet the “standard of competence, transparency, integrity or professionalism demanded of an inspection of this magnitude”.
Simons, who had been Sea World’s director of health and safety only a week before Brancheau was killed, sais that in her opinion people were put in danger every day and even after Dawn Brancheau’s death the park’s training procedures and policies were poorly executed and the employees did not follow the right protocol. Thad Lacinak, former head trainer at SeaWorld and Brancheau’s mentor sais that he believed that Tilikum was interested in Brancheau’s ponytail and that she died because of her poor judgment when she entered in the pool with him. Following the trainer’s death, no one employed at Sea World was allowed to enter the water with any of the killing whales.
